Prayers
Buddhist Prayer for Peace '''May all beings everywhere plagued with sufferings of body and mind quickly be freed from their illnesses. May those frightened cease to be afraid, and may those bound be free. May the powerless find power, and may people think of befriending one another. May those who find themselves in trackless, fearful wildernesses - the children, the aged, the unprotected - be guarded by beneficent celestials, and may they swiftly attain Buddhahood. ---- ---- '''The Terma Collective May my feet rest firmly on the ground May my head touch the sky May I see clearly May I have the capacity to listen May I be free to touch May my words be true May my heart and mind be open May my hands be empty to fill the need May my arms be open to others May my gifts be revealed to me So that I may return that which has been given Completing the great circle. '' from Life Prayers from Around the World edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon May I become at all times, both now and forever A protector for those without protection A guide for those who have lost their way A ship for those with oceans to cross A bridge for those with rivers to cross A sanctuary for those in danger A lamp for those without light A place of refuge for those who lack shelter And a servant to all in need. '''Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama ' SURRENDER "What is the highest act a person can perform?" "Sitting in meditation." "Wouldn't that lead to inaction?" "It IS inaction." "Is action, then, inferior?" "Inaction gives life to actions. Without it they are dead." - - -Anthony de Mello, SJ Words - without action - are dead. - ---anon Love Should come out of your Silence, awareness, meditativeness. It is soft, it is unbinding Because how can Love create fetters For the one it loves? - -- -Osho ---- :Action rightly renounced brings freedom. :Action rightly performed brings freedom. :Either is better ... :Than mere shunning of Action. :-BhagavadGita- ---- Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love, Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; And where there is sadness; joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. - -- - ST FRANCIS of ASSISI O God, give me I pray Thee, light on my right hand and light on my left hand and light above me, and light beneath me, O Lord increase light within me and give me light and illuminate me. + - + -- - ASCRIBED TO MUHAMMAD Like a golden beacon signalling on a moonless night, Tao guides our passage through this transitory realm. In moments of darkness and pain remember all is cyclical. Sit quietly behind your wooden door: Spring will come again. - -- - LOY CHING YUEN Meditation, then, is bringing the mind home. - -- -SOGYAL RINPOCHE O Hidden Life vibrant in every atom; O Hidden Light! shining in every creature; O Hidden Love! embracing all in Oneness; May each who feels himself as one with Thee, Know he is also one with every other. - + -- - ANNIE BESANT ---- NAVAJO PRAYER With your feet i walk I walk with your limbs I carry forth your body For me your mind Your voice speaks for me Beauty is before me And beauty is behind me Above and below me hovers the beautiful I am surrounded by it I am immersed in it In my youth I am aware of it And in old age I shall walk quietly The beautiful trail. ---- At a certain point you say to the woods, to the sea, to the mountains, the world. Now I am ready. Now I will stop and be wholly attentive. You empty yourself and wait, listening. After a time you hear it: there is nothing there. There is nothing but those things only, those created objects, discrete, growing or holding, or swaying, being rained on or raining, held, flooding or ebbing, standing, or spread. You feel the world's word as a tension, a hum, a single chorused note everywhere the same. This is it: this hum is the silence. The silence is all there is. It is the alpha and the omega. It is God's brooding over the face of the waters; it is the blended note of the ten thousand things, the whine of wings. You take a step in the right direction to pray to this silence, and even to address the prayer to "World". Distinctions blur. Quit your tents. Pray without ceasing. - - -- - Annie Dillard - - ---- ABOUT PRAYER: When I am liberated by silence, when I ' am no longer involved in the measurement of life, but in the living of it, I can discover a form of prayer in which there is effectively no distraction. My whole life becomes a prayer. My whole silence is full of prayer. the world of silence in which I am immersed contributes to my prayer. - THOMAS MERTON O Thou who art at home Deep in my heart Enable me to join you Deep in my heart. - -- ---THE TALMUD ---- '''NATIVE VALUES - -By Dr. Walter Soboleff -1. Be obedient; the wise never test a rule. -2. Respect elders, parents, property and the world of nature. Also, -respect yourself so that others might respect you. -3. Be considerate and patient. -4. Be careful of how you speak, for words can be either pleasing or like a club. Traditionally, when you speak, those listening can imagine seeing your clan family line. -5. Your food comes from the land and the sea. To abuse either may diminish its generosity. -6. Pride in family, clan and traditions is found in love, loyalty and -generosity. -7. Share burdens and support each other. This is caring. ' -8. Trespass not onto other's rights, or offer royalty and/or restitution. -9. Parents and relatives are responsible for the family education of children; men teaching the boys and women teaching the girls. -10. Care and good health is important for success of the person or clan. -11. Take not the property of others; an error reflects on the family and clan. -12. In peace, living is better. -13. Through famine, ice age, sickness, war and other obstacles, unity and self-determination are essential to survival. -14. Good conduct is encouraged to please the spirit we believe is near. -15. Humor. - -Adopted by Healthy Nations Program -Central Council of Tlinget and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska -1998 -Dalai Lama with Hopi Elders '"Native American Ten Commandments" ' ....Sacred Instructions Given By The Creator To Native People At The Time Of Creation.... -Treat the Earth and all that dwell thereon with respect. -Remain close to the Great Spirit. -Show great respect for your fellow beings. -Work together for the benefit of all Mankind. -Give assistance and kindness wherever needed. -Do what you know to be right. -Look after the well being of mind and body. -Dedicate a share of your efforts to the greater good. -Be truthful and honest at all times. -Take full responsibility for your actions. - - - -From the Lakotah: - -'''"akita mani yo" - -(see all things as you walk) - @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ "Acceptance" When the spent sun throws up its rays on cloud, And goes down burning into the gulf below, No voice in nature is heard to cry aloud At what has happened. Birds, at least, must know. It is the change of darkness in the sky. Murmuring something quiet in her breast, One bird begins to close a faded eye; Or overtaken too far from its nest, Hurrying low above the grove, some waif Swoops just in time to his remembered tree. At most he thinks or twitters softly, "Safe!" Now let the night be dark for all of me. Let the night be too dark for me to see Into the future. Let what will be, be. - -- ROBERT FROST -- '' ---- '''METAPHYSICAL PRAYER ' May the Power of the One Life pour through the group of all true servers. May the Love of the One Soul characterize the lives of all who seek to aid the Great Ones. May we fulfill our part in the One Work through self-forgetfulness, harmlessness, and right speech. - - -World Servers Mantram Clouds come from time to time --- and bring a chance to rest from looking at the moon. - -- ----BASHO ********************************* I pray not for wealth, I pray not for honours, I pray not for pleasures, or even the joys of poetry. I only pray that during all my life I may have love: that I may have pure love to love Thee. - -- ---CHAITANYA O love, O pure deep love, be here, be now, Be all; worlds dissolve into your stainless, endless radiance, Frail living leaves burn with you brighter than cold stars: Make me your servant, your breath, your core. - -- ---JELALUDDIN RUMI ---- 'God's Grandeur' The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod? Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; And all is seared with trade; bleared,smeared with toil; And wears man's smudges and shares man's smell: the soil Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod. And for all this, nature is never spent; There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; And through the last lights off the black West went Oh, morning at the brown brink eastward, springs --- Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings. - -- --- GERALD MANLY HOPKINS - -- ---- SIR SPIRIT Sir spirit, forgive me my sins, Sir spirit give me your blessing again, Sir Spirit forgive my phantom body's demands, Sir Spirit thanks for your kindness past... - -- ALLEN GINSBURG - -- "Elegy for Neal Cassady" @]>->-->---@]>->-->---@]>->-->---@]>->-->---@]>->-->--- We rose before dawn to praise you, bringing our song to your Lotus Feet --- hear what we ask! Please listen, you who were born among us into this cowherding clan --- What choice do you have but to take us into your service, your heartfelt servants, your kin? We didn't come to receive the outer drum, the drum of a day, O Govinda --- We are yours for life. Make all desires be for you, it is you alone that we want. Hear our song! - -----ANTAL ---<--<-<{@---<--<-<{@---<--<-<{@---<--<-<{@---<--<-<{@ Do not stand at my grave and weep, I am not there, I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glint on snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain. When you wake in the morning hush, I am the swift, uplifting rush Of quiet birds in circling flight. I am the soft starlight at night. Do not stand at my grave and weep. I am not there, I do not sleep. (Do not stand at my grave and cry. I am not there, I did not die!) - -Text by Mary Frye (1932) @}>->-->--- I want to be saved... and I want to save, - Amen. I want to be set free...and I want to free, - Amen. I want to be born...and I want to give birth, - Amen. I want to hear... and I want to be heard, - Amen. Sweetness dances. I want to pipe; all of you - dance. Amen. I want to run away...and I want to stay. - Amen. I want to make you beautiful...and I want to - be beautiful. Amen. I want to join with you...and I want to be - joined. Amen. I have no house...and I have houses. Amen. I have no ground... and I have ground. Amen. I have no temple...and I have temples. Amen. If you look at me... I will be a lamp. Amen. If you see me... I will be a mirror. Amen. If you knock on me... I will be a door. Amen. If you are a traveller... I will be a road. Amen. This is my dance... Answer me with dancing. - --- THE ACTS OF JOHN ---- The 23rd PSALM ~Psalms 23:1-6~ The LORD is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. yea - even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies for Thy name's sake. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. Amen. ____________________________________________________________ 'A Jain Prayer for Peace'Lead me from Death to Life, from falsehood to truth. Lead me from despair to hope, From fear to trust. Lead me from hate to love, from war to peace. Let peace fill our heart, our world, Our universe. @}>->-->--- Knowing We Are All Essentially Divine We All Are One Our Embodiment and Demonstration of The Principle of Goodwill Our Conscious Distribution of Goodwill Energies To all Endeavors Cooperating with The Healing of The Nations Will Lead to the Peace We All Desire So Be It PRAYER FOR COMPASSION Spirit of Life, I give thanks for the opportunities to love that present themselves in the turmoil of life. When the light catches the tears in another’s eyes, where hands are held and there are moments without words, let us be present then, and alive to the possibility of changing. Let us seek to make another’s well being the object of our concern. Let us seek to be present to another’s pain, to bathe another’s wounds, hear another’s sadness, celebrate another’s success, and allow the other’s story to change our own. Let us stand in the morning on damp grass, hear the syllables of bird song, and fill up on sweet air that rolls over oceans and continents. Let us look up at the stars and the planets that fill the night sky with majesty. Let us witness the first fresh buds of spring amid the brown sticks of winter. And for all this, let us be grateful. Let us not defend ourselves against the discomfort of unruly emotion, nor seek to close down our hearts for fear a new love will come to shake our foundations. Let us instead be open to discovering a new way of seeing an old problem, or appreciating the perfection of a seashell, or the possibility of friendship. For in giving ourselves to what we do not understand, we receive life’s blessings, and in taking care of another, we are cared for. ~ amen